Racer

As the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams knows a thing or two about deadlines and the pressure they bring. “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” But while Adams may have missed a few…

When is a Triumph Bonneville not actually a Bonneville? When it’s a Thunderbird T6 that raced and wowed the Bonneville salt flats in the sport’s golden era, that’s when. A full 6 years before the model name was dreamt up, a 13-year-old Californian named Bobby Sirkegian…

If the original design team at BMW knew that their sandals-with-socks tourers would get turned into bikes like this they would haves choked on their strudel. Despite their uninspiring origins, over the last ten years we’ve seen old Boxers shift to the forefront of the custom scene…

What have Pikes Peak racers and WWII fighter planes got in common? Well believe it or not, they both face the same challenges when it comes to making engines work at higher altitudes. As with the old fighters, the internal combustion engine on a racing bike might be fine at sea level, but will rapidly lose power as the air gets thinner…

Despite the incredible motorcycles that have been coming out of Italy for more than a hundred years, even the biggest of manufacturers has gone through financial turmoil. Perhaps none more so than Moto Morini, who seem to have had more bankruptcies than Donald Trump. Things got so bad, the company nearly fell into the hands of Silvio Berlusconi’s Brother. But despite all of the financial woes, when the company has been on its feet it’s produced some incredible machines. Which is why fans of all things two wheels, Michael and Tom of Austria’s Titan Motorcycles had a desire to build a custom Morini to do the brand justice. Based on a 2007 Moto Morini Corsaro it’s a stripped down urban racer for the cafe set with a need for speed that earns it the name ‘Superleggera’, or ‘Superlight’.

As you probably know, India has a hell of a lot of people. Around four times the population of America. Or about 50 times the size of Australia. That’s right, there’s about 1.2 billion Indians and only a small percentage of those people have cars. As of 2002, India had an estimated 37 million motorcycles/mopeds which made it home to the largest number of motorised two-wheelers in the world. And ever since we featured a couple of bikes from India, it seems like we have received about 36 million emails from Indians submitting their motorbikes. Of those emails, here is one that stood out. The bike was built by Umang Shankar and his team at Highland Custom Motorcycles. It’s called ‘Highland’ because Umang is from a village in the Himachal hills and is proud to be a ‘highlander’. He is also a proud member of the Royal Enfield motorcycle group called ‘Road Survivors’ – one of the oldest motorcycle clubs in India. Umang is passionate about motorcycles and passionate about this little Jawa racer, so lets hear from the man himself…

Back in 1910 the world’s first board track was opened at the Los Angeles Coliseum Motordome near Playa del Rey, California. Now, 100 years later, board track racers are again making a comeback to America’s west coast. These stunning bikes are being hand-built in Gilroy, California by Pat Dolan who started the company out of passion for these classically styled motor bicycles. The “Sportsman Flyer Company” started not as a business, but as a hobby” he says. “I have built and collected cars and bicycles for years and have always wanted to add a Schwinn Whizzer motorized bicycle to my collection”. So while Pat was searching for the right bike, he started seeing motorized bicycles around the place with newer two stroke engines. That’s when he decided to build one and started the project with a vintage Schwinn Panther frame.

Found this cool video on the deus site. Riding a cafe racer on a salt lake is now on my list of things to do before i die! This is actually a salt lake in South Australia for all those people reading from overseas. Love the “Don’t fence me” in sound track…